Iraq restoration work brought back Mosul’s ‘identity’: UNESCO chief

Iraq restoration work brought back Mosul’s ‘identity’: UNESCO chief
Builders give last touches to the Al-Hadba minaret of Mosul’s Al-Nuri Mosque. The 12th century minaret was destroyed by Daesh in 2017. (Reuters)
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Updated 06 February 2025
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Iraq restoration work brought back Mosul’s ‘identity’: UNESCO chief

Iraq restoration work brought back Mosul’s ‘identity’: UNESCO chief
  • The director-general of United Nations heritage body UNESCO hailed the completion of their restoration work in the Iraqi city of Mosul, saying on Wednesday it had allowed it to recover its “identity”

MOSUL: The director-general of United Nations heritage body UNESCO hailed the completion of their restoration work in the Iraqi city of Mosul, saying on Wednesday it had allowed it to recover its “identity” after destruction inflicted by the Daesh group.
Mosul’s historic Al-Nuri Mosque with its famed leaning minaret, nicknamed Al-Hadba or “hunchback,” has been restored using its original brickwork, years after it was reduced to rubble under Daesh group rule.
“I am very happy to stand before you and before the minaret over 850 years old... and the fact to have it here behind me in front of you is like history coming back... is like the identity of the city coming back,” Audrey Azoulay said.
The mosque and minaret were destroyed in June 2017 during the battle to oust IS from Mosul, and Iraq’s authorities accused the jihadists of planting explosives before their withdrawal.


They are the latest landmarks in Mosul to be restored by UNESCO, whose teams have worked for five years to revive several sites.
“The reconstruction of this minaret needed to reuse nearly 45,000 original bricks,” the UNESCO chief said, adding that traditional techniques were used to rebuild the iconic structure.
Azouley said residents had wanted the rebuilt minaret to resemble the original. “The people of Mosul wanted it tilted,” she said.
Eighty percent of Mosul’s old city was destroyed in the fight against IS.
UNESCO restoration project also include Al-Tahira and Our Lady of the Hour churches and 124 heritage houses.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani will inaugurate the restored landmarks in the coming weeks.


Syria’s Kurds hold conference on vision for country’s future

Syria’s Kurds hold conference on vision for country’s future
Updated 3 sec ago
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Syria’s Kurds hold conference on vision for country’s future

Syria’s Kurds hold conference on vision for country’s future
  • More than 400 people, including representatives from major Kurdish parties in Syria, Iraq and Turkiye, took part in the “Unity of the Kurdish Position and Ranks” conference in Qamishli
QAMISHLI: Syria’s Kurdish parties held a conference on Saturday aimed at presenting a unified vision for the country’s future following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, a high-ranking participant told AFP.
Eldar Khalil, an official in the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, said that since Kurds were a major component of the country, they “must present a solution and a project proposal for the future of Syria.”
On the question of federalism, Khalil said it was “one of the proposals on the table.”
More than 400 people, including representatives from major Kurdish parties in Syria, Iraq and Turkiye, took part in the “Unity of the Kurdish Position and Ranks” conference in Qamishli, according to the Kurdish Anha news agency.
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which has controlled large swathes of Syria’s northeast since the early years of the country’s civil war, was represented at the gathering, as were groups opposed to it.
Last month, the Kurdish administration struck a deal to integrate into state institutions, with the new Islamist-led leadership seeking to unify the country following the December overthrow of Assad.
The agreement, however, has not prevented the Kurdish administration from criticizing the new authorities, including over the formation of a new government and a recent constitutional declaration that concentrated executive power in the hands of interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa during the transition period.
Mazloum Abdi, head of the administration’s armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said at the conference that “my message to all Syrian constituents and the Damascus government is that the conference does not aim, as some say, at division.”
It was being held, he added, “for the unity of Syria.”
Abdi included a call for “a new decentralized constitution that includes all components” of society.
“We support all Syrian components receiving their rights in the constitution to be able to build a decentralized democratic Syria that embraces everyone,” he said.
Khalil said that the participants will also discuss ways to address the role of the Kurds in the new Syria.

A massive explosion and fire strikes Iranian port and injures at least 516 people

A massive explosion and fire strikes Iranian port and injures at least 516 people
Updated 52 min 33 sec ago
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A massive explosion and fire strikes Iranian port and injures at least 516 people

A massive explosion and fire strikes Iranian port and injures at least 516 people
  • Authorities have offered no cause for the explosion yet
  • Footage on state TV showed thick columns of black smoke billowing from the port area

TEHRAN:  A massive explosion and fire rocked a port Saturday in southern Iran, injuring at least 516 people, state television reported.
The blast happened at the Shahid Rajaei port just outside of Bandar Abbas, a major facility for container shipments for the Islamic Republic that handles some 80 million tons (72.5 million metric tons) of goods a year.
Social media videos showed black billowing smoke after the blast. Others showed glass blown out of buildings kilometers (miles) away from the epicenter of the explosion.
Authorities have offered no cause for the explosion yet. Industrial accidents happen in Iran, particularly at its aging oil facilities that struggle for access to parts under international sanctions. But Iranian state TV specifically ruled out any energy infrastructure as causing or being damaged in the blast.
Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, told Iranian state TV that first responders were trying to reach the area while others were attempting to evacuate the site.
Hasanzadeh said the blast came from containers at Rajaei port in the city, without elaborating. State TV also reported there had been a building collapse caused by the explosion, though there were no immediate other details offered.
Rajaei port is some 1,050 kilometers (652 miles) southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which 20 percent of all oil traded passes.
The blast happened as Iran and the United States met Saturday in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.


Iran-US nuclear talks ‘may be extended’: Iranian state media

Iran-US nuclear talks ‘may be extended’: Iranian state media
Updated 26 April 2025
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Iran-US nuclear talks ‘may be extended’: Iranian state media

Iran-US nuclear talks ‘may be extended’: Iranian state media
  • A third round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States “may be extended,” Iranian state media reported Saturday, as negotiators were meeting in Oman

MUSCAT: A third round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States “may be extended,” Iranian state media reported Saturday, as negotiators were meeting in Oman.
“Given that the negotiations have entered technical and expert-level discussions and the examination of details, it can be anticipated that it may be extended if necessary,” the official IRNA news agency said.


Israel says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

Israel says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
Israeli security officers oversee the removal of a part of a missile fired from Yemen. (File/AFP)
Updated 26 April 2025
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Israel says intercepted missile launched from Yemen

Israel says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
  • The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza

Israel’s military said Saturday it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, whose Houthi militants have launched attacks throughout the Gaza war, as well as a drone approaching “from the east.”
“Following the sirens that sounded recently in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted” before “crossing into Israeli territory,” a military statement said.
In a later statement, it said a drone “that was on its way to Israeli territory from the east was intercepted” by the air force.
Yemen, large parts of which are under the control of the Iran-backed Houthis, is located to Israel’s southeast.
Other countries to Israel’s east include Iraq, where Tehran-aligned militants have claimed a number of attacks targeting Israel since the Gaza war began.
The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023 in what they say is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The militants have also targeted ships they accuse of having ties to Israel as they travel on the Red Sea — a vital waterway for global trade.
They had temporarily paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire in Gaza.
According to Israel’s army radio, the missile intercepted overnight was the 22nd fired by the Houthis since they had resumed their attacks as Israel renewed its Gaza offensive on March 18.
Since March 15, Israel’s key ally the United States has stepped up its attacks on the Houthis, targeting militants positions in Yemen with near-daily air strikes.


Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 17

Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 17
Israel's military said Thursday that the initial findings from an investigation into the death of a UN worker in the central Gaz
Updated 21 min 36 sec ago
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Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 17

Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 17
  • Witnesses reported an estimated 20 victims trapped beneath the rubble.
  • Hamas says open to 5-year Gaza truce, one-time hostages release

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 17 people across the territory, while more trapped under the rubble after a family home was hit.
Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce that had largely halted the fighting.
“Israeli air strikes in several areas killed 17 people since dawn,” civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir told AFP.
A strike on the house of Al-Khour family in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood killed 10 people, Mughayyir said, with witnesses reporting an estimated 20 victims trapped beneath the rubble.
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defense agency, had earlier said that about 30 people were missing under the rubble.
Umm Walid Al-Khour, who survived the attack, said that “everyone was sleeping with their children” when the strike hit.
“The house collapsed on top of us,” she told AFP.
“Those who survived cried for help but nobody came... Most of the deceased were children.”
AFP footage showed rescuers searching under the rubble as a wounded man was pulled out from the debris.
Elsewhere in the city, three people were killed in Israeli shelling of a house in the Al-Shati refugee camp, Mughayyir said.
More strikes across the Gaza Strip killed four others.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
 

Hamas says open to 5-year Gaza truce

Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said Saturday ahead of talks with mediators.
A Hamas delegation was in Cairo to discuss with Egyptian mediators ways out of the 18-month war, as on the ground rescuers said an Israeli strike on a family home in Gaza City killed at least 10 people and left more feared buried under the rubble.
The Hamas official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian militant group “is ready for an exchange of prisoners in a single batch and a truce for five years.”
The latest bid to seal a ceasefire follows an Israeli proposal which Hamas had rejected earlier this month as “partial,” calling instead for a “comprehensive” agreement to halt the war ignited by the group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The Israeli offer included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.
Hamas has consistently demanded that a truce deal must lead to an end to the war, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a surge in humanitarian aid into the besieged territory — where on Friday the United Nations warned food stocks were running out.
Israel, for its part, demands the return of all hostages seized in the 2023 attack, and Hamas’s disarmament, which the group has rejected as a “red line.”
More than a month into a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza after a two-month truce, a Hamas official said earlier this week that its delegation in Cairo would discuss “new ideas” on a ceasefire.